Why was Staff Sgt. S., out of all the Israel Defense Forces' soldiers and officers, chosen to stand trial for killing two women in the Gaza Strip on January 4, 2009, the first day of Israel's ground incursion there? The IDF killed 34 armed men that same day. Was S. chosen because he was the only one who killed civilians?

Should his lawyer argue that he is being scapegoated, he can safely rely on the following statistics: The IDF also killed 80 other civilians that day by close-range shooting, artillery fire, aerial fire and naval fire. Among them were six women and 29 children under the age of 16. Just go to B'Tselem's website and read the list: a 7-year-old boy, a 1-year-old girl, another 1-year-old girl, a 3-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl.

B'Tselem is careful to differentiate between Palestinians who "took part in the hostilities" and Palestinians who "did not take part in the hostilities." Its list of fatalities states: "Farah Amar Fuad al-Hilu, 1-year-old resident of Gaza City, killed on 04.01.2009 in Gaza City, by live ammunition. Did not participate in hostilities. Additional information: Killed while she fled from her house with her family after her grandfather (Fuad al-Hilu, 62) was shot by soldiers who entered the house." The grandfather also did not participate in hostilities.

Or perhaps S. was chosen because Riyeh Abu Hajaj, 64, and Majda Abu Hajaj, 37, a mother and daughter, were the only ones killed while carrying a white flag that January 4? No. Matar, 17, and Mohammed, 16, were also killed. They were shot from an IDF position in a nearby house as they pushed a cart carrying the wounded and dead of the Abu Halima family, who were hit by a white phosphorous bomb that penetrated their home in northern Beit Lahiya. Five members of the family were killed on the spot, including a 1-year-old girl. Another young woman would die of her injuries a few weeks later.

The news that Staff Sgt. S. would stand trial created something of a stir for a day. The military advocate general was praised. So was B'Tselem, and rightly so, for giving the army testimony about the Abu Hajaj killings that its field investigators, Palestinian residents of Gaza, had gathered. Palestinian organizations gathered similar material, while Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both published detailed reports about slain civilians. Everything is accessible on their websites. But we in Israel do not believe the gentiles, so let us focus only on B'Tselem.

B'Tselem also gave the army dozens of statements about the killing of other civilians who "did not take part in the hostilities." So why was Staff Sgt. S. chosen, rather than any of the others? Did someone from his unit violate the code of solidarity among soldiers for the sake of a higher code? This is indeed most likely to happen in the ground forces: All the witnesses who spoke to Breaking the Silence activists i.e., those who were shaken by something that happened came from the ground troops; they were the ones who saw the destruction, and the human beings, with their own eyes.

"The amount of destruction there was incomprehensible," said one soldier. "You go through the neighborhoods there and you can't identify anything. No stone is left unturned. You see rows of fields, hothouses, orchards, and it's all in ruins. Everything is completely destroyed. You see a pink room with a poster of Barbie, and a shell that went through a meter and a half below it."

But the breakdown of casualties shows that those killed by direct fire where the soldier who shoots sees those he is shooting with his own eyes are a tiny minority. At the request of Haaretz, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza analyzed the breakdown of casualties according to the type of fire. It found that 80 were killed by rifle fire, 13 by machine guns and 134 by artillery fire. It is unclear whether the 11 killed by flechette shells (shells filled with metal darts) are or are not included in the latter figure.

Undoubtedly, these are estimates, with margins of error. Around 1,400 Palestinians were killed in Operation Cast Lead; at least 1,000 most of them civilians were killed from the air, by bombs dropped from planes or missiles fired from other airborne vehicles. To the soldiers responsible for the launches, they looked like characters prancing around on a computer screen.

B'Tselem and Haaretz, as well as the gentile organizations that need not be considered, all documented incidents of aerial killing. The IDF acknowledged two errors (the killing of 22 members of the a-Diya family in Zeitun with a single bomb, and the killing of seven people who were removing oxygen tanks from a metalworking shop, which on the computer screens looked like Grad missiles).

"One characteristic of the recent IDF attack on Gaza is the large number of families that lost many members at one stroke, most of them in their homes, during Israeli bombings: Ba'alousha, Bannar, Sultan, Abu Halima, Salha, Barbakh, Shurrab, Abu Eisha, Ghayan, al-Najjar, Abed-Rabo, Azzam, Jebara, El Astel, Haddad, Quran, Nasser, al-Alul, Dib, Samouni," Haaretz wrote in February 2009. Are there no sergeants involved in those cases who ought to be investigated? Or is it that in these cases, an investigation would have to target people of higher rank than a mere staff sergeant?

The disclosure that Staff Sgt. S. will be tried created something of a stir. The military advocate general won praise. But S.'s attorney will rightly ask: Out of all the testimonies and reports, he is the only one you found?

And what of the commanders' attitudes, as described by those interviewed by Breaking the Silence: "When the company commander and the battalion commander tell you 'yalla, shoot,' soldiers will not restrain themselves. They wait for this day to have the fun of shooting and feeling the power in your hands." What of the battalion commander's speech "the night before the ground incursion": "He said that it's not going to be easy. He defined the goals of the operation: 2,000 dead terrorists."

And if this was the operation's objective, perhaps we should investigate the supreme commander Defense Minister Ehud Barak about the gap between the objective and the result?

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That's whaht happens when you use hospitals and mosques as army bases.
When you shoot rockets from civillian houses you kill those people also.
Israel has no obligation to just shut up and die. Arabs are cowards
so they hide behind woman, children, and Imam and call it a war crime
when someone fights back.

Although I am sad by every civilian death in Gaza and all other wars
including those of the USA, what is the answer when a country is under
attack as was Israel before the Gaza incursion? Civilians are always the
ones who pay the price, unwillingly put in the way of war waged by
armies. It happens in every war. The choices are limited and mankind has
not yet evolved beyond killing each other to solve differences. Add to
that the fact that Hamas used its own civilin population to hide behind
and you have yet another disaster to blame on Israel. Vicious cycle
after vicious cycle. Perhaps it is time to start talking and stop shooting.

If those involved had a shred of a moral con-science --they would line
themselves up.. Bloody murderers and cowards picking on a poor
defenseless population...It's so damn shocking inhumane. Mark my
words--Gaza will be noted for the demise of the Israeli state and people
yet..... Dutch

..it really unbelievable...i'm reading all these comments of israelis
and non.... it's crazy, non isrelis try to see the whole thing
objectively, try to make israelis to think about how the world could see
all these from outside, really crazy, everything what the israelis, 99%,
do is just defending everything...it doesn't matter guitly or not, even
my little brothet understands what is wrong and what is right, or he
tries to understand, with israelis there's no chance even to discuss
these topics, you guys you have to start to put yourself in other
peoples shoes...or just think about what happend to your folk in the
past.....why can't you learn from what happened and make certain things
happen, why do you defend un-defendable actions.... ..if i eremember
barak said onece, it was about giving back occupied land, " we have
to low down their ( plaest.) expectations"...why the hell are you
playing dirty! the whole world knows YOU have to give the occupied land
back, and you don't even care about what the world community thinks,
and just keep going on steeling land.... is it really so difficult to
understand the anger of the palestianian people? the whole world usually
defends whatever israel does, but today there are countries trying to
make you understand , you are doing the wrong thind, going to the wrong
direction. even the US will not be able to defen you...you are just
exaggerating.... this is all so bad...

You and your little broterh being from outside it is easy to be cynical
and say you see what is right and wrong, Perhapos you and your little
brother should come live in Sderot for a few months , and when for no
reason other that because tyou are there hamas launches rockets to kill
you, you would have a better grasp and informed opinion. Until then, you
like many others just dont "get it" and never will until you
have tio live wioth it or even die with it.

... and have a 100 to 1 kill ratio. Sounds like a Biblical prophecy to
me. We should not apologize, we should not bow our heads about these
casualties. They are a result of hundreds of missles fired on us. Want
fewer dead in Gaza? Then leave us alone, otherwise next time, it will be
worse.

With that kind of thinking you will never reach peace. With a ratio of 1
dead terrorist of 4 killed you can't talk about defending Israel. Thats
the use of merciless excessive force among civilans. Israel has every
right to defend it self agains attackers. But the use of of excessive
force killing too many civilians is contraproductive for Israel. At
least if anyone wants peace. I think Israel need new strategies against
the terrorism because the old ones has been proven to not work that well

And there's even a good possibility that he's volunteered for this
ordeal - call it a PR 'mission'. But even if the latter is not the case,
the routine is well known and the outcome is invariably the same. Even
if convicted, it'll be for something insignificant - like the infamous
"improper use of a firearm" - and the whole process will have
been drawn out over several years, and then in the end the conviction
will be overturned on appeal. The man is going to walk out of it
unscathed, he'll be compensated for any time spent in jail, and he'll be
promoted - which makes his volunteering entirely feasible. Meanwhile,
YOU, Amira Hass, you'll be needing to bite your tongue over the whole
sordid affair; lest you be sued by him for damaging his 'good name'.
Barak declared to Ashkenazi, "sacrifice me a son" then leaned
to him closely to whisper in a hush, "but make sure he's off the
alter before he's done". The die has been cast by the IDF, over and
over again, Amira. You know that, and I know that.

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